Peter Chen/The Post-StandardBrent Teft, of Camillus, sights in the scope on his Savage .270 Winchester rifle Saturday at Camillus Sportsmen's Club's public sight-in weekend. Bill Parfitt, of Camillus, the club's president, said the event allows none club members to use their range and get their guns ready for the upcoming hunting season.

Saturday morning kicks off the deer hunting season in the Southern Zone for firearms.

Dick Masterpole, range officer at the Camillus Sportsmen’s Club, was overseeing last weekend’s sight-in sessions for hunters and their guns at the Camillus club. He said every year the sessions are frequented by a good number of experienced, safe hunters.

However, there’s always the “Last Minute Charlies” — hunters who wait until the 11th hour to get their guns and gear in order, he said. Some forgo the sessions and even wait until the night before to pick up their firearms.

Masterpole said he’s been involved in the club’s gun sight-in sessions for some 25 years and has seen “a lot of crazy stuff” concerning inexperienced or rusty shooters.

“I’ve seen guys turn white, start shaking, jerking their triggers, jerking their heads off to the side when they shoot,” he said. “These guys are just opening day hunters who maybe shoot just two to three times a year.”

Masterpole said some hunters Saturday will head out to the woods or their tree stands toting brand new firearms they’ve never shot, or carrying borrowed guns that they’re unfamiliar with. Both scenarios are unsafe and lacking in common sense.

Hunting, compared to many outdoors activities such as boating, is a safe sport. Food for thought, though, is the fact that New York hunters last year had their worst safety record in eight years. They piled up 40 hunting-related accidents, including four fatalities.

It was a marked difference from 2009, when hunters posted their safest season on record, only having 26 hunting-related incidents and one death.

Mike Arnold, of Camillus, a veteran hunting-safety instructor, said fellow instructors in Onondaga County stopped offering hunting-safety courses in mid-October to give students 30 days to go out and get their guns and to get familiar with them prior to the season. He said “it’s nuts” that this week a number of new guns have been purchased by hunters at local sporting goods stores — guns that in some cases won’t be taken out of the box until tonight.

“Seasoned hunters wouldn’t do that,” Arnold said. “You’re putting mine and other hunters’ lives at risk because you don’t know what you’re doing. A firearm is not a toy.”

The bottom line, Masterpole said, is that hunters owe it to themselves — and to the deer their hunting — to be familiar with their firearms. That entails being comfortable with loading, unloading it and firing it, and knowing how and where the gun shoots and what kind of ammunition works best with it.

Masterpole said the best way to learn where a gun shoots is to fire it at least three times from a bench rest or some other way that keeps the firearm steady when the trigger is pulled.

“You need at least three shots to determine if you have a pattern,” he said. “That way you can see if you’re gun is firing to the left, to the right, or up or down — and whether you need to make adjustments.”

He also said many hunters get new scopes put on their guns and never try them out. Big mistake, he said.

“They say it was bore-sighted at the store,” he said. “That doesn’t mean anything. I’ve seen guns with new scopes shooting some two feet low at 20 yards at our sessions.”

It’s also important to use the proper ammunition for your gun.

Gerard Marco, a gunsmith in Fleming, said he visited a local shooting range recently at which some guys were shooting old-style lead slugs out of a shotguns with rifled barrels. That’s a bad thing. Those slugs, he said, are not made for that and should be used for smooth-bore barrels only.

Conversely, saboted or sabot-style slugs are only meant to be used in rifled slug barrels.

“If you shoot an old-style lead slug out of a rifled barrel, it strips the lead off and leaves it back in the barrel. If you get enough of it in there you could blow the gun up,” he said.

The bottom line for the Last Minute Charlies is that they still have today to get familiar with their firearms.

Arnold had another suggestion:

“It’s too late,” he said. “Take a camera out instead Saturday and start getting ready for next year.”

Peter Chen/The Post-StandardDick Masterpole (left, ) of Oswego, and Howard Dowlen, of Camillus, both members at Camillus Sportsmen's Club, replace paper targets for the club's public sight-in weekend.

10 Commandments of Firearm Safety
1. Watch that muzzle. Keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction at all times.
2. Treat every firearm with the respect due a loaded gun.
3. Be sure of your target and know what is in front of it and beyond it.
4. Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until ready to shoot.
5. Check your barrel and ammunition. Make sure your barrel and action are clear of any obstructions, and carry only the proper ammunition for your firearm.
6. Unload firearms when not in use.
7. Point a firearm only at something you intend to shoot.
8. Don’t run, jump or climb with a loaded firearm.
9. Store firearms and ammunition separately and safely.
10. Avoid alcoholic beverages before and during shooting. Source: DEC hunting guide